Having read a lot of material on world war 1, there is almost always a point about it being a 20th century war fought like a 19th century war with a focus on mass infantry attacks. This makes me wonder: if I'm in charge of one of the armies on the western front in 1914, what are my options to do things differently? Where those commanders really that inept or was there simply no alternative way of fighting available given the lack of tanks and war planes?